Green Party candidate Ursula Rozum's TV ads begin airing

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Green Party congressional candidate Ursula Rozum will begin hitting the airwaves Wednesday with a 30-second TV spot, a rarity for a Green candidate.

Rozum’s campaign spent $4,662.20 to run the 30-second ad 85 times on Time Warner Cable stations between Wednesday and Monday night, including a spot on ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcast. Rozum will also have 19 slots on MSNBC, nine on YNN, seven on the Weather Channel, five on Comedy Central and four on CNN.

The most expensive single ad was the Monday Night Football spot, which cost $800, according to Time Warner’s records.

Rozum’s competitors for the 24th Congressional District seat, Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, R-Onondaga Hill, and Democrat Dan Maffei of DeWitt, have been flooding the airwaves with advertising for weeks. But it is unusual for a local Green candidate to get on the air with significant political advertising.

Rozum’s campaign manager, Howie Hawkins, said Rozum’s ad is more sophisticated than the ad he did when he ran for Congress. The ad shows Rozum walking through Syracuse and talking to residents. It covers her concerns about unemployment, climate change, Medicare for All, a free public college education for all and forgiveness of college debts.